Automatic signal and stopping device for railroad-trains.



F` J@ MILLER.

AUTOMATIC SXGNAL AND STOPPING' DEVICE EUR RAILROAD TRAINS.

rw AYPLOFATQ FILED JULY 10, 1908. P QQ@ Patentei July 2l w99.

P. J. MILLER. AUTOMATIC SIGNAL AND STOPPING DEVICE FOR RAILROAD TRAINS.

Patented'July 27, 1909.

` APPLICATION PTI BD JULY 10l .1908. 929,458.

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F.1J. MILLER. AUTOMATIC SIGNAL 'AND' STQBPING DBVIQE FOBV RAILROAD' TRAINS.

.APPLIOA'TION ''ILBD JULY 10,\1908. .A

' Patented July l2'?, 1909 LER ` Ami/Mfrs" "To all 'whom "it may UNITED STATES Pngrnnr FRANK J. MILLER, or CINCINNATI, onfIo, 'AssIGNon or cnn-FOURTH 'ro EDWARD A.. l BROCKMANN, 0F. CINCINNATI, oleic- AUTOMATIC SIGNAL AND STOPPING- DEVICE FQR vlitI'atlll)'IRAIIXIS.

Specjcation'o! Letters Patent.

^ Application ied July 10, 1908. Serial No. 442,827.

concern', Be it known that I, FRANK J. MILLER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cincinnati, in. the county of-H-amilton and1 State of Ohio, have made. certain new and .useful Improvements in Automatic ``Signal scribed with and Stopping Devices for Railro'ad-Trai'ns,.of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of de- Vvices employed on railroads for the purpose -of avoiding collisions and which comprehend y the electro-magnetic devices in the roadbed,

acting in connection with electro-magnetic devices on the engine or car, whereby the entry of a train u on a section of ytrack already occupied, w1 actuate in said on-co'mf ing train a signal alarm and will also cause autoniaticdevices to be set into action7 by which the throttle valve, is closed and the' traiiln is ,automatically'brought to a standsti My invention, consists in .the novel construction and arrangement ofthe devices in the roadbed'aiid the'ci'rcuits connecting -the saine, in .combination with the devices ofthe engine as will' be hereinafter more fully dereference to the drawings, in which-' v f' Figure 1 is a plan view of the section of track comprehendin five' units' of my system; Fig. 2 is ane evational view of the track sections'shown in Fig. 1 Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view, in eispective, of the parts of the device carrie by the locomotive which roadbed for giving the alarm and closing the throttle valve; Fig. 4 is a View of the signal device and throttle valve operating mechanism Fig.- `5isan'enlarged detailview oi the throttle valve operating mechanism; Fig. 6

is a side view, in detail, of a circuit closing device; and Fig. 7.1s a plan View of the cir-- cuit closing device shown in Fig. 6.y

Referring now to Fig. 1, A1,' A2, A3, A4 and A?, represent five units or sections of a railroad track-each. section of which is suitablj msulated liront-,theA adjacent section. It l as will fully appear hereinaffter.

be understood hat in theifollowingdescription the electro-magneticilevices shown in connection with the sectiolniAs, are so showi` act in connection with devices in the` vclosers of other sections.

paeenwaruiy 2v., i909. f. M

ciated with it a circuit closing device B, a dei tail view of which is shownv in Fig. This circuit closing device is yarranged to he actuated by means ci the battery 1, when an electrical connection between the two rails termin el '60" of the section is completed. To this end, oneI of the electro-magnet B is connecte battery by the wire 2, the otherterni is connected to 'one oi the rails '1' by 5 uiuctor 3,. While the other rail r is convnected with the battery bythe conductor 4.

The function of the circuit ciosei' B is to.`

magnets z -The arrangement and dispo-sis ,tionof the latter magnets forms one of the main features of my invention. These magnets are in a circuit including the contacts of establish. a closedv circuit through the electropleted .by means o'f an auxiliary .conductor 5,A which, as is shown in the figure, extends from the magnets c on the left of the igure tothe track to the conductor 5, thence tl'irough the magnet c at the `right oi' the figure, and by means of the lconductor 71, back through the circuit closer to the battery. It will be alsov noted, that there are no magnets c adjacent to the rails r of the section A3, which are controlled by the circuit closer 'B of the section A3, althougll as pointed out before, there are y .90' the section A3 which arecontrolled by circuit.. 1 2 f cert'ain' of' these magnets along the railsfof The-circuit closer B is preferably supports as shown in Fig. 6. The magnets c 'onithe other hand, are located adjacent to the rails andare housed in suitable c asings 8, .as shown inFig. 3. It Willbe seen from located at A one side of the track upon, a post orother.

an inspectionvof Fig. 1, that the closure oiv the circuit by the relay B places an actuating` current on the magnets of the section A2 and part .of A1 that is ahead oiA3 and whose magf nets .are on `one side of the track, and it also aetuates the magnets c oi' the section A4 and part of the section A5 behind the section A?,

obvious that in prac-.tice these magnets cl ici, these latteiiinagnets being on the opposite' side of the track. While I have shown these would be so distributed-aste meet the re-v tion containingl or -fewer of t quirements of the system in which they areto be used.. Thus, it may be convenient to` extend these magnets merel intoA the sections' ahead and the section ehndthe secthe circuit closer, and more e magnetscgcould be used,l depending upon the length of the sections to be'ruarded.-

he main principle of. the Ainvention convsistsjli the automaticclosing of the actuating circuit of the` relay B, 'when a train enters upon the section Af. associatedwith the gether through the-wheels'and axles of the circuit closer. 'T When a'train isupon section A3 'the' ralls 'are electrically connected totrain. I Theactuating circuit of the relayB 1s closed,- and when'the relay pullsu -its amature 9, engages contact 10, see 1g.' '6, thereby closin thecircuit from"v the wire 7to l the wire 7 lea ing to the'battery 6.

coperatewith'the ma andgbaring a ivoted lever 12.

54o of the lever 12. is an armature'21 which is The electro-magneti devices arranged to 'fets c on the roadbed hese consist. o f a supporting member vv11 attached. at, some oint near t e front of the engine, shown in' ig. 3 'as attached on the rear of the zcowlcatcher,

The lever 12 vis fulcrume 'at one end -and is normally, drawn u by a spring 13. This lever is provided wlth an'upwardl projecting lug 14 are shown in Fig. 3..

which is adapted to-catc and hold thejlower.

end-of a trigger 15 whichispivoted on the supportingv member 11, and `which is forcedby. means of a compression. spring '16 against. the lug 1 4. The trigger 1'5 1s provided with a contact 17, adapted .to coperate with another contact 18, these two contacts form-f4 ing thetermnals of the conductors 19 and 20,

respectively.` Attached to the forward end of the train and is arranged to be actuated by thel magnetv c in the manner hereinafter described. Referring now to Figs. 2 and 4, the two Wires 19 and'20 extend to the cab, where they terminate in the winding of an electro- A magnet 22. In thecircuit of the wire 20 is arranged a'danger signal lamp 23, shown in Fig. 4. The conductor 19 is attached to a local battery 19 from which the actuating currentof themagnet 22 is derived The .magntgg cts upon the throttle mechallilxlly through the medium of a pin and' ment of the latter causes the release of the throttle lever 24, andthe consequent shutting o ffof the steam. vThe-magnet 22, as wil be seen from Figs. 4 and 5 is carried upon the throttle lever itself and in the ordinary use of they throttle lever the engineer will move the same backward and forward, and vthe lever will be retained in its position by means of the ivoted pawl 25 which engagesl the teeth of t e rack member 26. The pawl 25, comprises a spring actuated pin 27, which is mova ly carried in a slot or opening in the pivoted member. The magnet 22 is in close yproximityto the movable pin 27, and When the magnet is actuated the pin is drawn outwardly against the tension ofthe .spring and' the throttle. lever which, of course, is also under tension 'immediately returns to its normal'position thereby closing the throttle and shutting oifthe steam.

Having thus described in detail the operating-mechanism I willshow `the operation of -the various devices, and the manner in which a unit of the system may beautoma'tically ro'tected. and collisions may be avoided. eferring how to Fig. 1,-we'will assume that a train has entered 'the'section A3,'4 thereby completing an electrical connection between the two rails. rlhecircuit closer 'B will be actuated inthe manner alreadydescribed and will clo'se a circuit throughthe magnets c, in the section immediately forward of the section A3 and in :the section immediately behind the s cetion A3. If now a train shouldapproach from the rear, that is from the direction indicated in Fig. 1, the armature 2l ofits right'v hand circuit closing device will be attracted bythe magnet c. The local circuit through the magnet 22 which controls the throttle `will be completedfand thethrottle willbe closed, there y bringing the train to a stand` still. At the same time, `Jthe red danger lamp 23' will glow` thereby apprising thereueer of the fact that there is a train 1n the lock or section immediately ahead. l1f a train shouldapproach from the left, that is vcome head-on toward the train in section A3, the magnets c on the lef'thand side of the track being actuated would cause the oncoming train to stop in the same manner. Now when the train in the. section A3l moves on to the section- A2, the circuit closer B of the 'section A3v is denergized, Ithe magnets c controlled by it are also dee'nergized, .whilev the circuit closer of the section A2 -is energiz'ed and completes a circuit through a series of magnets arranged along thetrack on the left and right hand of theforward andrear adjacent sections respectively, inthe same relative positions as those controlled by the circuit c the train has just'ileft. "fTheapparatus op the 'ri ht side ofthe engine may also be ap- -pli'ed orputting on the brake of thetrtainasl oser B of the section A3 which neer Would-be immediately apprised ofdan-l 'pro er operativecondition of the system.

- pose-'to use a batte'ryat each` magnet con- I `which I have indicated in Fig. 4, at 30, and

train.

4engine may bevused as an indicator.

' trolling mechanism. The lamp will beppref- 'closing device on the engine passes one ofthe Acircuitv is in Working condition. If, how- Aprotectedfrom collisions and the ltrains are erably of a green color and Whenthe circuit magnets c controlledb'y thecircuit closer of its sect1on, the green lamp will flash Vand the flashing of the lamp wil indicate that the ever, the vgreen lamp `failed to flash the engiger ahead of him from the interruption of the circuit,: Which lmight be occasioned by "a broken rail, `a Wash-out, a bridge `down or any- ,othery cause which mightrender the circuit inoperative. I also, ropose to use a bell on the-'same system as tlie green lamp. In case the engineer does not see the lamp he can hear the' bell vand-thus be apprised of the -Alt oughI show each'section of track oper-i ated by a signalbattery 1, in practice I 'prof nected to act in series with the battery ofthe central section so that all the magnets would be energetically charged I In order to record the ejxac't time at'which. one Ytrain Was stopped -by another train, I

may' use an' electrically controlled stop clock Which mayl be lconveniently placed in series -With the local.throttle-controlling circuit.

From the above description it Will be seen that I have provideda system which the various sectionsor blocks of track are amply automaticallyl sto ped before they ent-ery l1 on a section a ready` occupied. I have a so provided means for indicating theA con-l dition 'of the track ahead of the movingl 'I am aware that various modifications may be made embodying-the ideas herein disclosedfbutI desire to claim as my own all l such modifications as fairly fall Vwithin than spirit and: scope of the invention.

Having ent of the United Statesnisz- 1. In a signaling and train stopping device, a track comprising a series of insu ated sections each rovided With an-electrical relay, a series o cent sections of track and adapted tobeacciated With the .forward adj acentsection' be# ing on one side of the track and those of the rear adjacent section being on the other side of the track, a train provided with an arma l ture adapted to be attracted by said magnets -nowdescribed my invention what I claim and desire to secure byLettersPat- .K

magnets arranged along adjathose magnets ao'-,

and kto operate a circuit closing device,

throttle lever, and an electro magnet carried by said lever and arranged to be actuated by said circuit closerffor restoring said lever and vthereby closing thethrottle. i

2. In a .train signaling' and stopping'de-- vice,` the combination' with an electro-mag. net inl the road bed, of an armature carried -by a car and adapted to be attracted by said manet, a spring-actuated vtrigger provided' Wit adapted to be engaged by the `iirst-'named a. contact arranged to be re eased on the movement of the armature, a second contact contact for closing an'electric circuit, a throt-"So tle valve lever 'and an-electro-magne'tic locking and releasing device arranged in said electric circiiit and adapted to be operated upon the closure of said contacts.

3. In a train signaling and stopping de vice, the combination With an electro-magiet'in the roadbed,l of an armature with trip devices carried on thecar and controlling two terminal contacts, a throttle-valve lever pro'- vided with a pivoted retaininggpawl having a movable pin arranged yto engage a rack` member, for locking said throttle lever, an electro-magnet also carried by said lever and arranged when actuated by the closure of said. terminals to Withdraw said yreflease the throttle lever.

Y y FRANK J. MILLER.

' Witnesses: r

GEO. A. PARKS, VICTOR WM. HERTWIG.

pin and to 

